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lesson plan outline

Native Food - Wagö

The SINM has produced a fourth grade curriculum that teachers can use with the NYS Native American Studies Curriculum. We have incorporated lesson plan ideas as well as what standards the lesson plan meets. Included here are sample lesson plans. Please do not download. Contact us and we will share select lesson plan outlines.

Sample Lesson Plan for Food (Wagö) (waw-gonh!)

Robert Griffing painting used with permission

Onöndowa'ga:' (oh-nohn-doh-wawh!-gawh!) (Senecas) survival depended on a reliable food supply. Primarily, Onöndowa'ga:' ate their meals according to the season. They grew, gathered, fished, and hunted for their wagö. Onöndowa'ga:' women cultivated the land to grow crops of onëö (oh-nenh-onh!) (corn), oeä'ge:ka' (oh-aye-ah!-gay-kawh!) (beans), and onyöhsa' (oh-nyonh-sawh!) (squash). They pounded the onëö into flour using a mortar and pestle. The women used the flour to make bread and boiled onëö wheels to supplement meals. In the spring, summer and fall, the women and children looked for, gathered and stored seeds, nuts, berries and some roots that they used in meal preparation at different times.

Onöndowa'ga:' men hunted in the forests and brought back deer, bear, wild turkey, rabbit and passenger pigeons for the women to cook. They went fishing as well and brought their catch back for preparation too. The women boiled the meat in water or broiled it on spits over an open fire.

Typically, Onöndowa'ga:' ate one regular meal a day or ate when they felt hungry. All the women in the community cooked a large pot of soup in the morning along with several wheels of cornbread. Individuals ate throughout the day. Onöndowa'ga:' ate dried or cured meat and fish when the men were not able to hunt due to weather or limited fresh meat. They also ate berries, ground nuts, chesnuts, butternuts, walnuts and some edible roots.

Read "A Visit to Cornplanter in 1798. Being Extracts from the Diary of Joshua Sharpless", Warren Times Observer, 1930.